Evener for vehicles.



No. 796,598. PATENTED AUG. 8, 1905.

A. L. MOGREGOR.

EVENBR FOR VEHICLES.

APPLIOATION II LED AUG. 8, 1904.

A TTORNE Y,

UNITED STATES PATENT ormon.

ALLAN L. MOGREGOR, OF DULUTH, MINNESOTA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-THIRD TO JOHN FLANNERY, OF DULUTH, MINNESOTA, AND ONE-THIRD TO DUNCAN MOGREGOR, OF OHISHOLM. MINNESOTA.

EVENER FOR VEHICLES.

No. '79 6,598. Specification cf Letters Patent. Patented Aug. 8, 1905. Application filed August 8, 1904. Serial No. 219,829.

nected to saidcentral member. Secured intermediate of its ends to one face of said central member is a spring 12, the ends of which are secured to the members 10 and 11, respectively, preferably by fingers 10 and 11, pivoted to the correspondingmembers 10 and 11. Said spring is adapted to normally preserve the alinement of said members 9, 10, and 11 with each other; but when the vehicle is loaded said spring is adapted to yield and permit a forward movement for the outer ends of said members 10 and 11. Secured to said members 10 and 11 in any suitable manner,preferabl y by a pivoted or hinged connection, as at 13 and 14:, are the sheaves 15 and 16, respectively, through which sheaves is carried suitable continuous flexible means, as a cable 17, the ends of which are secured to anchorages in rear of said evener, as to the axle at 17 and 17 Formed on or secured to the outer ends of members 10 and 11 are the anchorages 10 and 11 respectively, to which are attached the corresponding whiffletrees l8 and 19. In operation the'said cable is normally a trifle slack, so that there will be no draft upon it when the vehicle is on a level road and is empty or contains only a very slight load; but as the load on the evener-bar is increased by shifting the center of gravity of the vehicle or by the addition of matter to be transported or otherwise the spring 12 yields, and the excessive load is transferred gradually from said spring to said cable. The construction of said evener is also such that after the load is partly transferred to the cable the center of draft is shifted to a lower plane by reason of the attachment of said cable to the axle, which I regard as a great advantage. Another very material advantage of said equalizer is that by reason of the jointing of said evener-bar and the attachment of said cable the tongue of the vehicle is prevented from side-lashing the horses, as was formerly usual when one or the other wheel struck an To all whom it may concern/.-

Be it known that I, ALLAN L. MoGREGoR, a citizen of the United States, residing at Duluth, in the county of St. Louis and State of Minnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Eveners for Vehicles; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to draft equalizers or eveners for vehicles.

It consists, in combination with the forward gear of a vehicle, of a pivotally-jointed evener bar, rearwarclly directed sheaves mounted on said bar, a cable or other suitable flexible means engaging said sheaves and secured at its opposite end to the forward axle or other suitable anchorage, a spring mounted on said bar and adapted to hold the members thereof in normal alinement with each other, and means for attaching whiflietrees to said bar.

It also consists of certain other constructions, combinations, and arrangements of parts, as will be hereinafter described and claimed.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a bottom plan view of a portion of the forward gear of a vehicle,showing my invention mounted thereon. Fig. 2 is a front view of my said evener and of a fragment of the front cross-piece of the vehicle-gear, the whiffletrees being omitted to more clearly show the face of said evener-bar; and Fig. 3 is a side elevation of said gear and evener.

Referring to the drawings, the forward gear of the vehicle includes the front crosspiece 1, of any suitable construction, to which are secured in any suitable manner the forward ends of the hounds 2 and 3, the center longitudinal bar 4, and the side springs 5 and 6. Secured to the centers'of said springs 5 and 6 is the forward axle 7; but said gear may be of any suitable construction within the spirit and scope of my invention. Suspended from said front cross-piece and pivotally connected therewith by any suitable means, as by the bolt 8, is my evenerbar, comprising a central member 9 and opposite end members 10 and 11, pivotally conthe shoulders of the animals.

While I have shown the sheaves attached to the evener-bar and the ends of the cables attached to the axle, it is obvious that within the spirit and scope of my invention the arrangement of such parts might be trans posed, so that the sheaves would be attached to the obstruction, often causing severe bruises on axle and the ends of the cable attached to the evener-bar, the operative effect being subl stantially the same in either case. 1

Having now described my invention, what Iclaim, is

1. In an evener for vehicles, an evener-bar comprising a central member and two end members pivoted to said central member, and yielding means adapted to normally maintain said members in alinement with each other.

2. In an evener for vehicles, the combination with the forward gear of a vehicle, of an evener-bar comprising a central member pivotally connected to the front cross-piece of said gear, two end members pivotally connected at their inner ends to the corresponding ends of said central member, yielding means adjustably secured to said members and adapted to normally maintain said members in a predetermined relation to each other, and a cable or equivalent means adjustably connecting said end members to rearwardly-located anchorages on said forward gear.

3. In an evener for vehicles, the combination with the forward gear of a vehicle, of an evener-bar secured to said gear and comprising a central member and two end members 1 pivotally connected at their inner ends to the opposite ends of said central member, fingers pivoted to said end members, a spring or and desire to secure by Letters Patent,

springs secured to said central member and to 1 means coni said pivoted fingers, and flexible signature in presence of two necting said end members to rearwardly-lo cated anchorages on said forward gear.

I. In an evener for vehicles, the combination with the forward gear of a vehicle, of a flexible evener-bar, yielding means adapted to prevent the operative flexion of saidbar under light strains, continuous flexible means adjustably connecting the outer ends of said bar with anchorages on said gear in rear of the vertical plane of said bar, and means for attaching whiflietrees to said bar.

5. In an evener for vehicles, the combination with a vehicle of an evener-bar secured thereto and comprisinga central member and two end members pivotally connected to the opposite ends of said central member, adjustable yielding means secured to said central member and to said end members and adapted to normally preserve the relative alinement of said members, rearwardly-projecting guides secured to said evener-bar near the outer ends thereof, a cable or equivalent means loosely engaging both of said guides and attached at its opposite ends to the gear of said vehicle in rear of the vertical plane of said evener-bar,

and means for attaching whiffletrees'to said evener-bar.

In testimony whereof I hereunto affix my witnesses; ALLAN L. MOGREGOR.

Witnesses:

JAMEs T. WATSON, PHINEAs AYER. 

